The Upstarts Podcast

On The Upstarts Podcast, you’ll hear from some of the most exciting Upstarts today: emerging technology leaders punching above their weight to achieve real impact. Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad profiled leaders from Marc Benioff to Melanie Perkins in a decade-plus at Forbes. Now as the founder and editor of Upstarts Media, he’s sitting down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more. You’ll leave each interview with a new understanding of a world-changing technology that’s transforming how we live and work – as well as strategies and tactics any builder can put to use.

The Upstarts Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Alex Konrad, with 23 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Alex Konrad hosts The Upstarts Podcast, a business show with 23 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #10

  Basis's Matt Harpe: Why AI Won't Replace Accountants — It'll Make Them Richer

  Jul 30, 202643 minS2

  A crisis is happening in accounting that goes far beyond creative bookkeeping or lost receipts: we don't have enough people. Enough work exists for 30 million accountants to prepare tax returns and audits, restructure data and improve how companies organize. The U.S. has just 3 million, says Basis co-founder and CEO Matt Harpe. "The number is rapidly declining," he says. Founded in 2023 by Harpe and co-founder Mitchell Troyanovsky, Basis builds AI agents to help. Operating behind the scenes, Basis agents learn a firm's best practices and then automate much of the process, allowing its staffers to review more work for clients. Basis reached a $1.15 billion valuation in February 2026. Far from eliminating jobs, Harpe believes his startup will help those human accountants get paid more. "It will increase how valuable accountants are, because they will be able to accomplish so much more," he says. On the Upstarts Podcast, Harpe talks about why Basis shunned a chatbot approach to go all-in on agents from the start; why outcome-based pricing is preferable, but not easily achieved; and how he pitches top AI talent in New York on building in accounting, of all things. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: turning down short-term revenue by not charging for a product until their outcomes could match what they promised. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:47 The basis for Basis 07:25 Why no one wants to be an accountant any more 14:37 CEO Matt Harpe's founder journey 19:46 "The home for applied AI talent in New York" 22:58 Winning over skeptical accountants as customers 28:41 A big bet on agents from the start 31:31 Outcome-based pricing and its challenges 35:52 Competing with the big AI labs like OpenAI 41:11 Making human accountants more valuable Matt's LinkedIn Basis For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

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  Episode #9

  Abridge's Shiv Rao: The Doctor Founder Taking On Microsoft In Healthcare AI

  Jul 23, 202647 minS2

  Doctors are burned out. Patients don’t understand the advice they’re given. And the U.S. healthcare system is drowning each year in $1.5 trillion – with a “T” – in administrative costs. Abridge co-founder and CEO Shiv Rao thinks he can help. He’s seen the problem on both sides – as a practicing cardiologist who still sees patients, and as a partner who spent years navigating the system to seek fertility treatments with his spouse. “We’d look at each other and be like, ‘What did they just say?’ And I’m a doctor,” he says. Founded in Pittsburgh in 2018, Abridge is building what Rao calls the “AI operating system” for healthcare. Abridge’s software automates all the clerical work of a visit, from notes to billing, and increasingly assists with making clinical recommendations, too. Valued at $5.3 billion, Abridge serves more than 300 health systems, reaching 250 million Americans, and recently partnered with Eli Lilly and Nvidia. But Abridge has faced an uphill journey from day one, when Rao convinced his former employer to take a chance on a fledgling startup. Microsoft’s a big player. Epic Systems looms, and a number of well-funded startups are chasing Abridge’s lead. On The Upstarts Podcast, Rao talks about how an early bet on AI got Abridge going, before ChatGPT; why reaching scale in healthcare requires years of “eating glass” and “kissing frogs;” and why he thinks Abridge can help doctors and nurses feel like “superheroes.” Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: A “YOLO” decision to take on Microsoft head-to-head. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:16 What Abridge does for doctors, patients and hospitals 06:39 Solving the ‘conversation’ problem 10:45 From doctor to startup founder 18:48 “Eating glass” and “kissing frogs” early on 20:14 What IBM Watson got wrong 23:25 Why healthcare is a hard sell for startups 31:39 A “YOLO move” to go after Microsoft 37:42 Dealing with increasing competition 40:29 Working with NVIDIA, Anthropic and OpenAI 43:26 Shiv’s personal healthcare journey Shiv's LinkedIn Abridge For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

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  Episode #8

  Pigment’s Eléonore Crespo: Building France’s Next Unicorn With AI Agents And Tom Cruise

  Jul 17, 202643 minS2

  The world's big companies are blowing through their AI budgets. At French startup unicorn Pigment, Eléonore Crespo wants to help. "Our CEO is pressuring us for everybody in the company to use AI, but we don't have any right way to think about it," Crespo says she hears chief financial officers complain. “It’s going to be a big topic for everyone, and it goes beyond just understanding your costs." Pigment, founded by co-CEOs Crespo and Criteo veteran Romain Nicoli in 2019, fights runaway AI spending with AI. Its agents help CFOs and finance teams at customers like Anthropic, Notion, Coca-Cola and Unilever make faster, better financial decisions. For analysts, Crespo argues her tools can free up much of the 80% of time they currently spend sifting through data; her (perhaps optimistic) hope is that they can then focus on higher-level decisions, without fearing for their jobs. On The Upstarts Podcast, Crespo talks about how building in Paris helps Pigment compete; how a culture of “unreasonable hospitality” makes it win; and how careful communication makes a co-CEO setup work. Plus, she shares her Upstart Moment: landing a key executive hire, with an in-person assist from the actor Tom Cruise. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:18 What Pigment does, and who it helps 06:06 Seeing Google’s spreadsheet problem first-hand 10:05 Finding a co-founder, CIA style, and a product, Ferrari style 15:49 Cookies, WhatsApp and “unreasonable hospitality” as strategy 18:56 How to make startup co-CEOS work 24:00 Building in Paris versus the Bay Area’s “talent buffet” 30:11 How AI agents change CFO and analyst jobs 34:05 Bringing AI token spending under control 39:02 How Tom Cruise helped close Pigment’s CRO hire Eléonore's LinkedIn Pigment For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling⁠⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

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  Episode #7

  Radical AI’s Joseph Krause: The Scientist Building The ‘Waymo’ Lab For New Materials

  Jul 10, 202640 minS2

  Materials science hasn’t changed much in 150 years. Radical AI CEO Joseph Krause wants to change that. In a big new lab in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, the startup founder is looking to change that. He’s building a “next-gen” approach that he says makes other autonomous labs look like hand-free driving mode on a car, compared to a fully self-driving Waymo. It’s an approach that plenty of corporate scientists tell Krause must be too good to be true. “How could you really discover more alloys in a week than we have discovered in our company history?” he says they ask. But since its founding in 2024, Radical AI has already produced valuable, and secret, alloys for customers, Krause insists. And the startup has done it after raising just $55 million in its last funding round, not the $1 billion of well-heeled competitors.. On the Upstarts Podcast, Krause explains how a SpaceX breakthrough helped kick off a category; why cloud labs and deep tech companies often fail; and why concurrent engineering is as important as next-gen lab equipment itself. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: a 100-year-vision to become one of the world’s most important companies: “When we put a civilization on Mars, the habitat that they're living in will be made with Radical materials.” Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:25 What Radical AI does 04:36 Starting with metal alloys 08:30 Cold-emailing 100 VCs 12:22 An industry unchanged until SpaceX 15:56 Waymo vs. hands-free driving 19:09 Succeeding where cloud labs failed 25:42 Why Radical doesn’t need a billion dollars – yet 29:01 Unlocking 10x more research for customers 35:23 Why scientists should root for Radical 36:28 A 10-year timeline for impact 38:53 Radical materials on Mars Joseph's LinkedIn Radical AI For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling⁠⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

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  Episode #6

  Blitzy's Brian Elliott: Cursor And Claude Code Are Looking At Your Enterprise Code ‘Through A Straw’

  Jul 2, 202642 minS2

  First at West Point and then as an officer in the U.S. Army Rangers, Brian Elliott always sought out the hardest, highest-impact challenge. “You can do hard things that don’t have impact, but you can’t do things that have impact that aren’t hard,” he says. Now Elliott is taking the same approach at Blitzy, the Boston-based startup he co-founded with Harvard Business School classmate Sid Pardeshi in 2023 to overhaul and lead massive code projects for large corporations. Blitzy’s agents can understand 100 million-plus lines of code, automating away work that customers would otherwise pay millions over months to consulting firms to barely crack. “For eons, we have been limited by how much a human context can hold in their brain,” Elliott argues. Now Blitzy can offload that context to its AI systems: “We can do changes at a size and scale that were previously impossible." On The Upstarts Podcast, Elliott shares how he built Boston’s newest tech unicorn by becoming a CFO’s friend; why Cursor and Claude Code only see enterprise code through a straw; and what West Point and the Army Rangers taught him about operating with precision under pressure. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: catching the 6am train to New York to close an early customer, with his co-founder’s visa at stake. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 1:59 What Blitzy does 7:12 Like an F-15 of 'pure technology risk' 10:43 West Point, the U.S. Army Rangers, and Harvard 18:34 Why OpenAI's models can't do it alone 21:20 Building in Boston, not Silicon Valley 23:50 A visa-saving Upstart Moment 27:23 Proving value across millions of lines of code 31:07 Why token maxing won't work 34:41 A CFO's best friend 38:20 Moving to 'proactive' autonomy next Brian's LinkedIn Blitzy For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/ Season 2 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠Rippling⁠⁠ Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

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